Learning Cursive & Loving Copywork
Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 6:01AM 
My son started learning cursive just a couple of months ago. I used a $.99 ebook from Scholastic (Cursive Success) to teach him... my daughter learned with Handwriting Without Tears, but she had learned to write quite poorly in public school, so there was some remediation to do.
Cursive is a skill I feel is important for my children to know, and to know WELL. It is an ART that is being lost.
GMan picked up on cursive so well - and to my delight and surprise he wanted to write everything in cursive and he wanted to write all of the time! He's also a lefty, and I had heard these children have a more difficult time. Not this guy....
He started doing his Writing With Ease copywork and narrations in cursive. He was writing poems for me in cursive. He was copying the church bulletin in cursive. You get the picture.
Confident that he knows how to form the letters properly, I was having him copy lots of different things... Proverbs, major league baseball rosters, poems, etc... I was SO GLAD when Ami, at Walking by the Way, offered me the chance to review Copywork Lessons for Future Heroes! (Ami is the owner of Homeschool Share, where we get all of our free lapbooks, and she loves Interest Led Learning with her boys. I admire Ami very much!)
Copywork for Future Heroes includes 150 days of copywork for your future hero.
It is designed for grades 3 and up (my son is going into second grade) - but I can see it being adaptable for younger grades, too, depending on your child.
Ami has compiled copywork from scriptures (NIV), quotes about perseverance, honesty, hard work, and courage, inspiring poems, and fables full of wisdom. You can preview some of it at Walking By The Way.
I gave GMan a new spiral notebook and this will be his hero book. I pull up the .pdf download on the iPad and let him copy right from that. It makes him feel quite professional and "heroic".
I am pleased to be able to give away one download of Copywork for Future Heroes to a reader. Simply leave me a comment telling me about your little hero who would be using this resource!
This giveaway will be open until Friday, June 15 at midnight.
Reader Comments (20)
I believe the same as you. My kids were in public school until recently and I am so sad that they do not know how to write in cursive. My son, who is 11, has terrible handwriting and we will be attacking cursive in the fall. What better way to teach him cursive, then to use quotes and bible passages to help him learn?! I would love this free download! Thanks!
OH BOY do we need this! Zachary's handwriting is horrible and he is just not picking up cursive at all! I think one of the issues is he has never held his pencil the correct way and I just can't retrain him HELP!
I would love to win a copy of this and any other advice from any and all would be helpful!
Hi, Mary-
My youngest son, like your daughter, learned some very poor handwriting habits before we pulled him out of PS in the middle of first grade. I had seen folks refer to "Handwriting Without Tears" in homeschool blogs, and now I see what they mean! He literally cries when we do copywork -- smart as a whip, but manuscript and cursive are so hard for him. I think I will take your advice and try HWT next year -- thanks!
I have nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. I love your kindly, practical matter, and your laid back approach to teaching your children. I also appreciate your art and music background (two areas which I personally love, but for which I have fewer teaching ideas, because I'm a math and science girl by training).
Please accept the nomination and feel free to paste the little image onto your blog, if you'd like. See my post for more information on the "rules" for the award (not to worry -- they're fun ones)- http://bugsandstuff.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/very-inspiring-blogger-award/.
Be blessed!
Kim
What a time saver to have inspiring copywork in one resource! Hope I win, we start cursive this fall. Thanks for the give away. : ]
This is great!! We have been Homeschooling since January and I am constantly looking for good copywork and make my own sometimes. This would be wonderful for my daughters who will be starting cursive in the fall.
I think it's so important to send positive, uplifting and encouraging messages to our children daily.
Thanks for sharing!!
I would love this for my son who is entering third grade. He can form the cursive letters but I need some meaningful copywork for him to practice with.
Hi! I have a son going into 4th grade this year and we are starting cursive. He loves to write and would love copying scripture in cursive!
My daughter is starting 2nd grade, I'd love to have a resource to teach her.
Yay for cursive! I hate to see it be overlooked, forgotten, or deemed unimportant. I love that Gman is enjoying it and doing so well:) Molly is a leftie too but has had no trouble at all with cursive (unless you count reading it...for some reason;) She loves to practice hew writing, so I'll check out the resources you mentioned. Thanks!
Oh boy, we would love that too. My son is going into second also, but we haven't started cursive yet. But would love to learn it and have copywork with Scripture!
I agree cursive is a lost art! Keilee learned with "HWOT" but I am ashamed to say she rarely practices it. I am left handed and my cursive has always been wonky! The only "C" I ever made in school was a "C" in handwriting in 5th grade! See how it traumatized me? I still remember it. My Mother wasn't even concerned because she knew how I struggled that year! Now I do some weird combination of printing/cursive. :)
My son would love it!
My son is 12 and my daughter is 10. My son was introduced to cursive at the end of 4th grade in public school but they were never instructed to use cursive. This past year was our first year homeschooling. This was one thing I was determined to teach them and they were eager to learn. We focused on forming the letters and writing 2-3 letters together, then small words. We're getting there.
I really love your website (this is not a bribe ;D it's true).
My oldest daughter is going to be going into 3rd this year. We've been working on improving her reading skills and she has come with leaps and bounds. Our next skill is learning cursive. She has beautiful printing and is really excited about cursive. I too think it is a wonderful skill to learn, however, my personal skills are greatly lacking. :( So I'd love a chance to have something that will help her more then I can personally. What a great product. I too admire Ami VERY much. You all helping people the way that you all do is wonderful.
I would love this for my son! We are just starting copywork with him and I would love to have awesome copywork all ready for me :)
Samuel is a great little man with a great heart for others. He is kind and sharing and watches out for others. He doesn't like to see anyone hurt or sad. I know that God is calling him to reach out to others I am just guiding him and training him. He also loves all things "HEROES'...
I have two heroes. They amaze me everyday with their kindness and compassion towards others. They would both use this probably my son more than my daughter kbalman@gmail.com
My son is 7 and has been bugging me to start teaching him cursive. I keep telling me him to be patient because he will learn it in a year or two. We are using HWOT, we are in the printing series and it has been great so far. He likes superheroes and writes about them in his journal. This series looks cool and I think it would be an interesting intro for him. :)
I would love to have this...
Your words had great impact on me.